Soil compaction and floatation have always been important issues for farmers operating tractors and other farming vehicles in their fields. It has thus been found advantageous to replace two or even all four wheels of a farming tractor (and of other wheeled vehicles) with track systems which use endless traction bands instead of wheels for propulsion.
Using track systems instead of wheels brings several advantages when operated on soft terrains. The larger surface area of the traction bands improves the floatation and also generally improves the overall traction of the tractor.
However, tractors, and other similar normally wheeled vehicles, are still typically sold with wheels and are typically configured to be operated with wheels. Hence, when an operator wants to replace the wheels of its tractor with track systems, the track systems must be properly secured to the tractor. Since track systems are typically aftermarket products, this installation generally involves the attachment of the track systems to the vehicle at locations which, in some case, were not initially designed to support and/or sustain the additional load imparted by the track systems during use.
This is true of track systems installed as replacement of the rear wheels of a tractor. Indeed, as the rear portion of the tractor is typically configured to receive working implements via implement attachment components such as power takeoff, draw bars, lifting links, etc., there are often only a limited number of possible locations available to secure the track systems to the vehicle without interfering with the implement attachment components. One such location is the rear axle case of the tractor.
However, as the rear axle case, or the other locations, are generally not made nor configured to support track systems, the installation may, in some cases, cause premature wearing or even premature failure of some structures of the tractor (e.g. axle case(s), axle(s), bearing(s), etc.).
Hence, despite the advantages of using track systems on farming tractors and other similar vehicles, there are still some shortcomings that need to be addressed.